"The State of Israel ... will ensure complete equality of social and political
rights of all its inhabitants irrespective of religion ... it will guarantee freedom
of religion and conscience." - May 1948)

Quote

"The State of Israel is not a halachic state but rather is a nation-state of all the Jewish people. Many Jews are becoming alienated because they feel that the State of Israel does not respect the way they practice Judaism.”

Featured Story

The Israeli public trusts the Supreme Court, not Israel's politicians, according to a survey recently commissioned by Hiddush, in light of politicians' recent attempt to castrate the High Court of Justice, in order to prevent the Court from mandating that the State of Israel enlist yeshiva students and to allow the Government Coalition to enact additional discriminatory laws according to the ultra-Orthodox parties' demands without fear of these being ruled illegal by the High Court of Justice.

More Stories

This week we started action on behalf of a former Haredi man who is serving in the IDF and faces discrimination, as well as on behalf of a school and a PTA who have confronted a zealous religious fundamentalist who is trying to tempt their students to "experience Judaism" his way.

Hiddush appealed to Defense Minister Lieberman, Chief of Staff Eizenkot and Chair of the Ministerial Committee for Ceremonies and Symbols - Culture Minister Regev, demanding that female soldiers be fully included in official state ceremonies, including the ceremonies for Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and Yom HaZikaron (Israeli Memorial Day).

Hiddush’s mission to advance religious freedom and equality includes an attempt to identify and eliminate “pork barreling” in the religion-state arena, especially when they masquerade as ‘holy.’ Hiddush is in court now to get to the bottom of the use of scarce public funds available to address the challenge of children at risk.

72% of the Israeli public believes that all political parties running for seats in the Knesset, including the ultra-Orthodox parties, should be required to include female candidates on their party candidates lists and allow women to become party members. 88% favor integrating women into the IDF [69% support the inclusion of women in every possible role, including in combat, and another 19% support their integration into all non-combat roles]. 12% oppose enlisting women into the army at all.

A new survey reveals how strongly the Israeli public is opposed to the demand of the ultra-Orthodox parties to pass a new 'Basic Law: Torah study', as well as an amendment to the Defense Service Law to legalize the continued draft dodging of most yeshiva students.

Just this week, on Tuesday, following Hiddush's petition, the Knesset approved regulations that would, for the first time, put a halt to the mass phenomenon of false claims of religiosity aimed at receiving exemptions from military service. Thousands of young women are exempted from IDF service every year on the basis of false affidavits claiming that their religious lifestyles prevent them from serving in the army, even though they lead secular lives.

Hiddush sent all members of the Knesset the following report in advance of the Knesset vote on operating convenience stores on Shabbat in Israel. What does the public think of the Government's acquiescence to the ultra-Orthodox parties' demands to use legislative and policy channels in order to pass a law against operating local businesses on Shabbat?

Six years after the enactment of the law to establish an administrative process for revoking thousands of women's falsely obtained exemptions for having religious beliefs that conflict with IDF service, the process of approving the regulations to prevent such women from dodging the draft has not occurred, despite the continued phony claims of religious values.

More than 700,000 Israeli citizens can not marry at all in Israel, but only 11% of the citizenry are aware of this. Sixty-three percent of the public is not aware that even couples who get married civilly abroad are required to get divorced via the Israeli Chief Rabbinate.

Hiddush just scored a victory in the Jerusalem District Court in a freedom-of-information case, involving a huge amount of governmental grant monies, exceeding one hundred million NIS, provided to mostly Orthodox religious outreach organizations by multiple governmental agencies